On 14 December UniCredit turned the spotlight on the world of Italian innovation applied to activities in the field of social and environmental impact and sustainability 4.0, during an event attended by over 100 institutional investors.

23:00 min

This year's Italy Tech Day was opened by Niccolò Ubertalli, Head of UniCredit Italy, who in his speech underlined the strategic value of impact investing, a global trend that in 2020 reached a record figure of $715 billion in investments with businesses’ increasingly and consolidated trend to link their strategic objectives to ESG topics.

Within this context, Italy can play a leading role on the European stage: 2021 was a record year for start-up investments, which exceeded one billion euros and saw the Italian Government commit more than three billion euro to support innovation. Furthermore, there are 16,000 innovative Italian startups and SMEs, which have grown by 14% over the past year, despite the pandemic. 

The debate continued during the " Innovation Talks - Time to transition". In the following video clips, the event guests answered some questions, interviewed by Massimiliano Magrini, Co-Founder and Managing Partner - United Ventures.

 

Ernesto Ciorra – Chief Innovability® Officer - ENEL

“You drove ENEL group’s transition towards a sustainable business model and you defined a concept combining sustainability and innovation. What strategies did you adopt and how does it differentiate itself from other companies?”

Sebastiano Cossia Castiglioni – Vegan Investor & Activist

“You invested in over 80 companies in the plant based and cruelty free field. What problems are these companies trying to solve and when did you understand that you could turn your activism into an investment opportunity?”

Elisabeth Rizzotti – Co-Founder, COO, MD Italy – newcleo

“A startup with recent ambitions in producing clean energy via nuclear fusion who has obtained a 365 million funding from Sam Altman, one of the Silicon Valley’s veterans. What do you think is preventing these kind of opportunities from also happening in our continent?”

Ash Puri – Investor – Lightrock

“You are an entrepreneur turned VC. What is the main driver for your growing interest in impact investing and how do you see it fitting in a larger portfolio of traditional investment activities?”

At the end of the event, Alfredo Maria De Falco - Head of CIB Italy UniCredit, answered the question: "The banking sector is facing major upheavals. How are traditional banks coping with the transition of financial services to a more sustainable economy?"

 

Follow us in the next episode to discover more about the 5 scaleups that presented their projects: U-Earth, Treedom, Anemotech, NEXT e 3Bee.